he pipeline transported up to 1.6 million cubic metres of natural gas between the terminal at Zeebrugge harbour and France. The pipeline operator performed an emergency closure of the mainline valves, but given the distance of more than 10 kilometres between the upstream and downstream valves, the jet fire of the “line pack” lasted for almost 2 hours (line pack: the total volume of gas in the pipeline in between two valves).
The explosion left 24 people dead and injured 132 people. Debris was projected up to 6km from the epicentre of the explosion.
Expert analysis showed that the leak occurred as consequence of “external aggression”, i.e. the scratching of the pipe wall by a mechanical excavator, with a wall thickness of 4mm instead of the nominal 10mm.